1. Field of the Invention
The present invention relates to remote computer access, and more particularly, to a method and system for controlling a desktop application remotely from a mobile device.
2. Description of the Related Art
The industry trend of using mobile devices and various tablets presents some challenges with regard to remote access to desktop/laptop computers. For example, a user wants to open an application on a remote desktop of a computer from his mobile device. However, the application window, or some representation of its contents, has to be delivered to the mobile device in real time. This presents a problem in the existing systems, where the client receives a message about a new contents of the application window, but only can see old images that do not correspond to the current contents of the remote application windows. In other words, the remote desktop contents are not synchronized with what is shown on a mobile device, which cause delays in rendering images (applications windows) on the mobile device.
For example, U.S. Pat. No. 6,020,901 describes a typical video data processing system. In such a system a frame buffer is not available to system processes in real time. This system has a problem with synchronization of captured video frames (images) with images rendered on the screen in real time. Thus, one problem is minimizing delay between two moments in time—when a frame was originally displayed on the remote host and when the received frame is displayed on the mobile device. This delay must be minimal to produce a real-time experience. Another problem is capturing all video frames that need to be displayed on a remote user device. And another problem is a loss of some video frames during transmission.
Thus, if a user wants to work with an application executed remotely on a host computer from his mobile device, there are significant difficulties in using the application in real time due to delays in transferring video stream over a network.
Accordingly, a system for remote access to host applications from a mobile device in real-time is desired.